This is Why I'm Keeping Myself from Podcasting

Somehow it never seems all that long since I've blogged until I happen to glance at the date of my last post and the number is almost the same as the one on my desk calendar. I've been thinking about doing a podcast (as far as I know there are no Canadian knitting podcasts. WTF?) but looking at the track record of my knitting blog, I'm thinking that might not be a good idea.

However! There are improvements in the blog coming, namely:

PICTURES!

Yes, people, I finally got a digital camera. *happy twirl* I've been experimenting with it and will probably be doing the Alphabet Meme that some other knitbloggers have been doing, so I have an excuse to post more often.

At left, you see my modified Pine Tree Toe-Up socks, using my bedsheet as a background as it was the only light-coloured thing I had handy for photo-taking at 11:45 pm. Note the flare at the top of the sock from the cast-off; I've yet to find a bind-off for toe-ups that is stretchy, but also non-flaring. I know quite a few people swear by EZ's sewn bind-off, and I should probably try wrapping my head around those diagrams again. The mate to this sock is still on the needles, and I may try it on that one. After all, no one's going to notice when I'm wearing them.

Besides, I should really finish that sock because I kind of need the needles. Need them for some KOIGU, that is. My first Koigu. I feel like there should be a Hallmark card or something for this. Finally I get to use yarn that all the cool knitters are using! All I have to do is get some Trekking XXXXXXXXL and the transformation from nerd knitter to cool kid will be complete!

...Okay, I'm done with the sarcasm. It's just jealousy anyway, of all those knitters who live in a Certain Big City and have access to this stuff at actual yarn stores and to God knows how many SnBs. Seriously, I have to see if one of the LYSs here might start one or figure out how to start one myself, because I keep reading about people who have these great SnB nights and I'm insanely jealous, wah.

Anyway, so yes, I have Koigu. I went on a yarn crawl to Toronto a couple weeks back on one of the frigging hottest and stickiest days of the summer, as it was the only day I could do it for the next month or so, and Koigu was on the List of Things To Look For. Found a colourway I liked at Knitomatic, and I'm nearly at the heel on one sock. So far I'm loving the way the Koigu works up; it really is gorgeous stuff (which it had better be, really for $45 for a pair of socks). Have to get the other PTTU off the needles before I can start the other one, though, which I should do soon, as I don't usually knit one sock at a time. One stays in my purse/tote bag, the other by the TV and I switch them every so often so that the interesting bits are staggered.

Also in the nearing-completion pile is another photogenic work: The Lace Sampler Scarf. Which unfortunately has to be shown in three pieces as even with standing on a chair, I couldn't get all of it in the shot. And for some reason now the picture-adding doohickey on Blogger isn't working, so I'm coding this by hand.

...Okay, I'm copy-and-pasting the code from the first pic and using it for subsequent pics, just changing the URLs and the alignment codes. Like I'm going to reinvent the wheel, when I don't know how to make the wheel in the first place, pshaw!

Anyway, yes, the scarf. It's actually a little further along than in these pictures, by now, as I only have one more short-row corner to do and then the last stretch of the side edging. Luckily in these pictures (and probably in the finished object) you can't really see that with the corners, I am so making it up as I reach each corner. That's the point of a sampler, though, right? Learning experience? :-)

Okay, it was more to show off a woman's skills, though many of them were used as a learning tool as well. Personally I like the samplers with mistakes; we had a number of them at the living history museum I worked at and I always found the ones with misspellings and lines that ran out of room to be more endearing.

Anyway, all I have to do is finish the edging and them block this monster somehow. I've been thinking of getting some of those interlocking playmats--the kind that look like big, square puzzle pieces--so I could do it downstairs in the family room, though it's rather dusty down there. Either that or I could borrow the bed in the spare room, as long as I could be sure no one was going to use it in the interim. Though it shouldn't take too long for this piece to dry: it's laceweight mohair and silk, and it's very thin, light and fluffy as a cloud, but very warm.

As for current and immediate future projects, I have the Koigu socks (photos of those next time) and I really have to do swatching and start on the Satchel (aka the JackBauer Felted Manpurse *shifty*) from Knitty as I'm heading off to New York City in two weeks.

TWO. WEEKS. OMG. This has obviously not sunk in yet.

I wonder if my travelling companions would be put out if I wanted to visit a yarn store or two (or three...or four...)?

Busy Nothings

Am nearly done my pseudo-Jaywalkers. Or should that be my pseudo-Pine Tree Toe-Ups? Maybe some kind of illegitimate child of the two? (Oh, come on. You know those two would be getting it on.)

Ahem. Um. Anyway. Yes, almost done, just need to do the last bit of ribbing, then make another attempt to figure out that darning-needle ribby bind-off. I tried once before ages ago with a different project, but my brain was having problems translating the pictures to my hands. Will give it a whirl again, though.

I've also finally started knitting on the edging to my sampler lace scarf. It's going well--after a couple false starts trying to add another row of eyelets and some extra stitches to a pre-existing edging, I just cut out the fancy crap and added a couple plain stitches to the pre-existing edging for a border. It's looking quite nice, though when I gave the knitted-on part an experimental lateral tug, there wasn't much stretch there, and I'm not sure how much the entire piece will stretch lengthwise when I block it. It's not bad, though, and I don't think I really have to worry too much about increasing the length to make the lace patterns I used look better. Maybe I'm just pulling the edge stitches too tight.

I'm trying to resist buying yarn as I already have enough for quite a bit of knitting, but part of me also wants to plan a yarn crawl to Toronto soon. For some reason now my brain is debating the colour I chose for the Peacock Feathers Shawl when I was at the DKC Knitters' Frolic and have been checking about maybe picking up some more Jaggerspun Zephyr, but the only places I know of in Toronto that have it are mail-order, so I may just have to bite the bullet (or check out The Yarn Store With The Unhelpful Staff which I have had mixed experiences with). I have also been longing for KPPPM since I was at the Frolic, though hello, I have enough sock yarn already (but it's not Koigu!). Mainly just working out the timing between paycheques, time off work and the oh-God-end-of-the-month bills.

I might be buying some yarn for a specific project soon, though. I'm rather tempted to make Satchel from Knitty, particularly as it looks like it might be good or my trip to New York in August. Room for my wallet/iPod/camera/guidebook, a strap that goes over my chest so it's not falling off my shoulder all the time, and harder for someone to grab...

Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that it kind of looks like this one. Of course not. The fact that it looks like the Jack Bauer Manpurse of Justice has no bearing on it whatsoever. However could you think that? ;-)

Okay, so truthfully it is the functionality that I'm thinking of. The fact that it looks like the Jackpack basically just makes me giggle incessantly.

And speaking of trip and cameras, I'm looking into getting a digital camera, so hopefully soon there will be more actual photos of knitted items on this blog. *crosses fingers* I'm looking at something under $200, probably a 4- or 5-megapixels, preferably with USB hookup instead of a special dock, as well as removeable memory storage. Any suggestions as to manufacturers/models?

The Prodigal Blogger Returns

Agh, it's been more than a month since I posted and I have...well...not much to show for it. Haven't had much luck with projects of late, though that may be because I have way too many. I've been working pretty steadily on a pair of Pine Tree Toe-Up Socks by Kim Salazar, my kind of pseudo-Jaywalkers. The stitch pattern makes the same kind of chevron pattern as the Jaywalkers, but each pattern repeat uses a smaller number of stitches. I decided I might as well, as considering the two sizes in the Jaywalker pattern weren't big enough, I was going to try doing those toe-up anyway as I wasn't sure if I'd have enough yarn to make the cuff as long as directed in the pattern. Besides, I've only tried toe-up socks once before and those didn't work out well--I ended up ripping them back if I remember correctly--and I wanted to try again.

I've kind of fiddled with the pattern a bit though, adding 2-stitch purl welts inbetween each repeat to hopefully give it a little more stretch, and I'm doing a short-row heel instead of...well whatever kind of heel is mentioned in the pattern. A short row heel, is basically symmetrical, and I've done them on top-down socks as well, so why not?

As for other projects, the sampler lace scarf is still on the needles. I finally got around to picking up stitches around its edge, and tried starting to work the edging while watching the BBC's North and South on DVD last week, but out of nowhere I got a monster headache, and in the end I gave up. Too bad, as it's while watching British period dramas that I especially want to knit, particularly anything historically inspired. Which is, well, often.

It probably shouldn't be surprising that as a history and Museum Studies major, I'm particuarly fascinated by the history of knitting and historical patterns. Or, considering the fact that I'm Canadian, and knitting was, for a long time, a particularly essential skill for chldren (male and female) to have. Though I doubt she did a survey, I think there is some truth to Catharine Parr Traill's assertion in her 1855 book The Canadian Settler's Guide that "[t]here is no country where so much knitting-work done as in Canada...", even if I imagine citizens of other northern countries would be inclined to disagree. But that it was an essential skill at the time is true; particularly for those that were moving to the bush, as the Traills were, near Lakefield, Ontario. It can be hard to imagine not being able to but anything as simple as socks or mittens by running to the store when they wore out, or got lost.

Interestingly, she also mentions a kind of limited financial independence knitting could bring for women of the time; she mentions a couple instances of cases where young women were able to fund the stocking of their hope chest by selling things they'd knit, often from yarn they'd spun themselves. Not to mention the general increase of the family's finances by the production of mother, daughters and possibly sons.

I do have to wonder at some of the rosy view she gives (there's very much a tone of "yay, work!" to it, not surprisingly, considering the context), as well as some more modern writer, though. I have to wonder for how many women, knitting wasn't a means to a modicum of independence or a means of creative expression. It was another task, one that was crammed intbetween marshalling children, mending, unending laudry or food preparation. Traill mentions it filling the time "between twilight and candle-light" which, though people of the time would have been used to it, is still awfully dim light to be working by.

I'm sure for a lot of women at the time it was a way to be creaitve and something that was both necessary but that they also enjoyed doing. I also just have to wonder for how many it was a chore. I've met a couple people that learned to knit as a child but gave it up later because it was always something they had to do, not necessarily something they wanted to do, and this would have been as recent as the 1950s.

Maybe that's one of the best parts of this resurgence of knitting, quilting, and other traditional skills. For most of those in the Western world, at least, it's something people do because they want to, not necessarily because the family economy requires it. The people who knit are the ones that want to, and while knitting can be undervalued, the fact that it is a means of creation and expression, not a complete chore, has to be a good thing for the craft.

If at First You Don't Succeed...

Easter is a time of rebirth, and those Jaywalkers I was working on? They've been reborn as...well, two skeins of yarn. Ripped them out, washed the yarn to get out the kinkiness and the accumulated dirt/skin oils from knitting them twice and let them air dry. Now I just need to find a pattern I like to re-knit them. Unfortunately the patterns I like don't include a separate stitch pattern section; ie. at the beginning of the pattern a quick little descrption of what the stitch pattern is, including what multiple of stitches the pattern needs. This is essential, considering chances are I'll have to size them up a bit. I think this means I should take a swing through the stacks tomorrow at work and grab the Walker Treasuries to come up with something myself.

In lieu of the Jaywalkers, I'm working on a pair of Regia Canadian Colour stripe socks, in shades of blue, beige and grey. They're nice, mindless knitting to do while I'm on the bus. I also found a number of lace knitting books that were recently donated to the library and checked them out, looking for any last patterns I want to use for the sampler scarf, or for its border. The one on Orenburg Lace shawls has given me an idea of how I can do the corners without trying to re-draft the pattern to turn a corner, even if the results likely won't be as pretty.

In other knitting news, I'm crossing my fingers that I have no sudden call-ins to work this weekend, and therefore can go to Toronto for the Downtown Knit Collective Knitter's Frolic, and a bit of a yarn crawl. I'm actually more interested in going to this than the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival, even if I wasn't working every day of the CSNF.

For one, the CSNF website design team yet again didn't include instructions on how to get to the venue by public transit. For another, getting there is a giant pain in the ass--subway out as far as you can go, bus to the city limits, pay an extra fare when you get off, ride the bus for 45 minutes... All to go to something where there aren't really any classes I want to attend and when, considering my options locally, just going to the yarn stores in Toronto is enough of a treat? Yeah, I don't think so. I'll wait until the fall show, by which time it'll have been about 2.5 years since I've been to one.

However, it will be nice to have a yarn crawl. I haven't done one of those since I was in university and there are number of yarn stores to try that I haven't been to yet. I'll have to make up an itinerary. ;-) It also helps that I just finished doing my taxes and the government's going to be giving me some money back (even if much of that is going toward a new iPod, as I *whimper* dropped my iPod mini).

Whee, Toronto yarn stores, here I come!

Projects! Too Many Projects!

Also, for posterity, Stuff I Am Knitting Right Now:

• Lace Sampler scarf - I'm loving this project, as basically what I do is flip through various books (Including Folk Shawls, Lace Knitting and the Barbara Walker treasuries), and when I see an interesting pattern I knit it for a few inches. When I've had enough I do six rows of garter stitch and find something else. It's a nice project to pick up and put down whenever I feel like it. Not to mention that the Kid Seta I'm using (laceweight mohair/silk blend) is to die for. It looks beautiful so far--so light and airy and elegant.
• The Neverending Shawl - so called because a friend asked to make it for a fried of hers um...a year ago? And I'm nowhere near finished? Bad me. Though that's partly because I've ripped it out about 10 times, trying to decide how to knit it. Flirted with a Faroese design, then with a centre-increase triangle, but both of those, combined wiht the requested use of moss stitch, were breaking my brain for some reason. So now I'm doing a simple point-to-edge triangle with YO increases and a garter stitch border.
• And of course, as of Friday, the Pendant Bag - I'm doing this in a gorgeous, rich burgundy, with slightly darker beads. I've been eyeing a sample in my LYS for ages and when I was trying to think of something to do for the Knitting Olympics, I suddenly realized that beaded knitting was probably the one thing I wanted to learn/try but hadn't yet, but that could also had the chance of being completed in the time frame available. (I haven't done a sweater yet, but there's no way in hell I'm finishing one of those in two weeks--at least, nothing I'd like.)

I'd also like to start the Jaywalker socks with some variegated Regia I got in Toronto ages ago, but I think that's going to have to wait until after the Closing Ceremonies.